Britain’s Home Secretary, Sajid Javid had revealed that over 400 immigrants in Britain have received letters from the UK Home Office, demanding them to provide DNA tests that confirm that they are belongs to British nationals. He said that making such demands were not acceptable. He made an apology to the hundreds of immigrants who were illegally compelled to submit their DNA samples in order to process their visa into the country.

Sajid Javid made gave an interview to the British Parliament condemning the act and said apologies to the over 400 immigrants affected. Among those who received this letter were Afghan citizens and Gurkha soldiers.

Anybody seeking a visa to be in the UK with family relationships are not obligated to submit their DNA results along with their application. They can only do so by choice and not compulsion.

The Home Secretary also revealed that most of the cases were part of a 2016 operation aimed at handling fraud cases observed in human rights applications for a visa. As a regulation of the operation, 7 people were denied the visa to remain in the UK because they did not submit the required DNA evidence.

The Windrush Scandal

Home Office in demanding for DNA information of applicants, came to the attention of the Home Secretary when this immigration scandal went viral. In the scandal, many immigrants from the Caribbeans had been detained and forcefully removed.

These Caribbean are also known as the Windrush generation. After the second World War, many of them were came to Britain on a British ship. Under the 1971 immigration act, they were granted British citizenship.

But in 2012, after the tightening of UK’s immigration laws by Theresa May, who was Britain’s Home Secretary then, the Caribbean immigrants became frantic on how to prove their citizenship status as they didn’t go through any official naturalization process then.

Consequently, many of them lost their jobs. Some had their access to health care cut off and were at great risk of being deported. Finally, many of them were deported.

The UK government also apologized for the Windrush scandal.

The public is of the opinion that the Home Office is acting as a law unto itself and that something is wrong with the operations there.

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